Unfortunately, in these financially difficult times, some people may see counterfeits or fakes as an affordable alternative to genuine items. Actually, they can be a false economy. Common problems are:
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Clothes can come apart in the wash, or the colour can run over your other clothes in the wash or even on your sofas.
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Perfumes and aftershaves can be watered down which means the smell is weak. Some even contain chemicals that can cause skin irritation or even burn you.
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Cosmetics can also have been mixed with cheaper products, some which you would never expect to find in cosmetics. These, again, can cause skin irritation and burns.
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Fake alcohol can be fatal. It can contain industrial alcohol used for cleaning which, though cheap, is toxic for humans.
If it sounds too good to be true it probably is, so please don’t be misled.
Finding ge
nuine products
Brand-i and the national Trading Standards Institute have set up an online directory of webstores that only sell genuine products which is available on the Brand-i website. You can search by brand name or product (eg. ghd or hair straighteners), by ‘category’ using the brand directory menu (eg. ‘clothing’ or ‘trainers’) or by the search engine where you enter the name of the webstore that you want to check is genuine.
You can also report suspicious webstores on the
Brand-i website.
If you would like to report someone you suspect is making or selling counterfeits (fake goods) other than on a webstore (or aren't sure if it is a webstore or not), go to our Reporting page.
To read more about counterfeiting, visit our
'The truth about fakes' page.